Bright lights, big stageThe Texans’ recent success is a notable element added to their rivalry with the Tennessee Titans

DALE ROBERTSON, Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle |
November 23, 2009

After seven consecutive losses and 11 defeats in their first 13 tries against Tennessee, the Texans have taken the last two meetings.

From the moment Houston rejoined the NFL's fraternity, it was assumed Texans versus Titans would be a blood feud, born of their shared history. But the true, gut-level conflict between the city's once and future franchises proved several years in the making because the most crucial ingredient — parity — was missing.

That appears to have been achieved. All the woofing and posturing we've heard over the last few days is a secondary element. It's come about only because the Texans, in their eighth season, have become relevant. They've proved themselves to be on equal footing with the Titans.

“It's a game we expect to win and our fans expect us to win,” Texans cornerback Dunta Robinson said. “That wasn't always the case when we played them in the past.”

The Texans (5-4) lost their first seven meetings with Tennessee and 11 of the first 13. But they have won the last two — in fairly dramatic fashion — and are two games ahead of the Titans (3-6) in the AFC South going into their first Monday night showdown against the team that made their very existence possible. But the Texans, unlikely to catch the 10-0 Indianapolis Colts atop the division, badly need another victory to stay relevant in playoff wild-card conversations.

“I think it's a rivalry,” Texans quarterback Matt Schaub said. “We've won the last two times, so we're confident in what we can do if we go out and play well.”

Schaub has made the greatest difference in leveling the Texans-Titans playing field. He threw for 641 yards and five touchdowns without an interception (78 attempts) in the two transformative victories, conquering a defense that previously bedeviled him.

In the second week of the current season, the Texans pulled out a 34-31 victory in Nashville despite falling behind 21-7 early in the second quarter. And last December in Houston, they held the 12-1 Titans to four field goals in an immensely satisfying 13-12 upset.

The latter result seeming-ly launched a Tennessee tailspin. The Titans would lose eight of their next nine games — the last a historically merciless 59-0 beating on a snowy Oct. 18 afternoon in New England — before an open date allowed them to regroup and reboot, with Vince Young replacing Kerry Collins at quarterback.

The Vince Young factor

Tennessee's current 3-0 surge behind Young, still revered as a University of Texas hero in these parts, ensures a “big game” feel for tonight's nationally televised matchup.

“They're exceptional right now,” Texans head coach Gary Kubiak said. “They're doing what they do best: getting turnovers and running the football. That's a tough combination to beat. They've got one of the top running games and the top back in the league (Chris Johnson, who has rushed for an NFL-best 1,091 yards). I see it as the same team that won 13 games last year.”

The Texans aren't exactly slumping. In their last game two weeks ago, they fell three points shy of a first-ever 4-0 run when they lost at Indianapolis 20-17, missing the opportunity to get a shot in overtime when Kris Brown hooked a 42-yard field goal wide left at the end of regulation.

“The Texans have done a great job in all areas,” Titans coach Jeff Fisher said. “Their improvement speaks for itself. I think it was only a matter of time for them. Now we're on the bottom looking up, only trying to win the next game.”

Young's locally polarizing presence in the Titans' lineup notwithstanding, the Texans believe — or at least hope — they have earned enough goodwill of late to ensure there will be only minimally divided loyalties at Reliant Stadium this evening. After all, the Titans nee Oilers left 13 years ago.

“It does not any longer feel like yesterday,” conceded Fisher, who took over the Oilers with six games left in the 1994 season and is currently the NFL's longest-tenured coach. “We've been gone for quite some time.”

An ‘extra edge'

When owner Bud Adams, spurned in his bid to get the city to sign off on a new downtown football stadium, announced in August 1995 that he would be relocating the franchise to Tennessee, most of the current Texans were schoolboys. The Luv Ya Blue era? That brief, passionate interlude, when the town painted itself Columbia Blue, happened before a majority of them were born. In their minds, Bum Phillips, Earl Campbell and Dan Pastorini are prob-ably more closely related to football's leather-helmet days than the here and now.

Schaub summed up the attitude of a majority of his teammates by insisting the Titans are special to the Texans only “because it's a game against a divisional opponent in the middle of the season. It could decide a lot down the road. We have to go out and play a good game against a good team, a division rival.”

Still, new Texans running back Chris Henry, a Titan when the teams played in September, said he thought Tennessee's games with Houston always had an “extra edge.” And rookie Texans linebacker Brian Cushing senses the same thing, admitting he feels something special in the air.

“I don't know too much about everything that happened in the past except (the Titans) started here,” Cushing said. “But the physical, competitive way Tennessee played the last time means it's going to be another hard-fought game. It definitely feels like a rivalry to me.”